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Among them is the six-story Julian and Kokenge Co. Building at the northeast corner of Main and
Front streets Downtown. Casto Development and partners are converting the former shoe factory into
90 market-rate apartments.

The L-shaped building, which has more than 120,000 square feet and once was the workplace of
more than 1,000 people, was built in 1921; women’s shoes were being made there when it closed in
1975.

Casto began the renovation project last year, replacing the concrete-block-filled windows to
historic accuracy and earning the required National Register of Historic Places designation for it
to become eligible for tax credits.

The building was one of four projects statewide to earn the maximum tax credit.

Also earning a tax credit was a building at 1379 N. High St. in the University District, one of
several being restored as part of Homeport’s Victorian Heritage project. The building, which
received a $249,999 tax credit, will be converted into 34 affordable-housing units for senior
citizens at a cost of almost $4.5 million.

The former site of the Northside Early Learning Center at 94 E. 3rd Ave. in Italian Village,
which closed last year, was awarded a $140,124 tax credit toward a $1.2 million project to retrofit
seven one- and two-bedroom apartments.

The former Assembly Hall in downtown Newark and the neighboring Stewart Brothers and Alward Co.
building on W. Church Street received a $1.2 million grant toward a $5 million rehab project.

Owner Tom Atha will convert the Stewart Brothers and Alward building to house 15 apartments atop
ground-floor commercial space, while the former Assembly Hall will be returned to its original
purpose as a ballroom and music venue.

The 35 projects that received credits will leverage nearly $250 million in private investments,
said an Ohio Development Services Agency release. The agency cited a Cleveland State University
study that found that $1 million in Ohio Historic Preservation Tax Credits generates $8 million in
construction spending and $40 million in total economic activity and provides nearly 400 jobs from
construction and operations.